Trading standards are investigating tactics used by a power company's sales reps.

Nine people have made complaints about npower, saying they have been duped into signing contracts or their signatures have been forged.

Last Tuesday The Argus reported how widow Ellen Simpson, 79, from Eastbourne, was told her husband had signed up to the firm.

He has been dead for almost two years.

She has since been sent an apology by the firm - again addressed to her late husband - reading: "We are sorry you have changed your mind and will not be using npower."

The Argus has been contacted by a number of other complainants.

Heart patient Rodney Grooms says arguments with npower triggered a mild stroke.

Mr Grooms, 64, said he had never signed a contract but was told by npower he had agreed for the company to supply electricity.

When he finally obtained a copy of the document he said it was clear the signature had been faked.

He said: "I got a copy of the contract from them that I was supposed to have signed and the signatures are nothing like mine. They have even got me down as Raymond, not Rodney."

Three months after he first complained he was told he had also signed a contract for the company to operate the phone at his home in Sevenoaks Road, Eastbourne.

Mr Grooms said: "It has put me under a lot of stress, which I don't need.

"After having a big argument with them on the phone I had a mild stroke."

Engineer David Payne discovered he had been switched to npower without ever speaking to a representative from the company.

Mr Payne, of Gibbon Road, Newhaven, received a phone call from an npower representative last Tuesday to confirm a starting date for the contract.

But neither Mr Payne nor his wife Lynne had signed a contract with npower.

Mrs Payne, 54, said: "I never ever sign these sorts of things when people come to the door.

"My husband deals with these sorts of things and always tell them that as he's a Scot he knows about money. That gets rid of them."

Mr Payne told the caller he had not signed up with them and he was not interested in their services.

He then phoned a helpline to complain but the npower representative said they did not have a record on their computer system of Mr Payne's contract.

Two days later, a contract landed on the couple's doorstep.

Mother-of-two Mrs Payne called the npower helpline to tell them that they had not signed the contract and did not want it.

Mrs Payne said: "It's ridiculous. I would like to know how they have got information about us and who signed the contract because neither of us did."

The company insisted it was trying to eradicate contract problems and the number of sales complaints had been halved in the past year.

A spokeswoman said: "It is an issue we take massively importantly. It is a serious issue. We won't stand for misconduct by our sales staff at all."

Trading Standards officials in East Sussex said they had received nine complaints about npower contracts since April.

Gas and electricity industry watchdog Energywatch said: "Wherever npower sales agents go they leave a trail of chaos.

"It keeps on happening. Their warm words need to be backed up by actions that would restore confidence in the npower brand."